Victron Smart Shunt advice.

[PJGWiltshire]

Going to fit a Victron smart shunt. I fully understand from the instructions that you connect the shunt to the negative pole from the battery end of the shunt and then all other negative connections to the load end of the shunt.

My question is around the battery connection. I have two leisure batteries. Presently both + and - are cross connected to each battery. Do I now remove the cross negative from - pole and connect it to all the other negatives at the shunt or does this stay in situ with the battery end of the shunt

 

[Googlebot]

Just take the negative from the second battery and place the shunt there. All other connections should go on the load side of the shunt.

In essence, there should be nothing between the shunt and your batteries, except the connection to the batteries.

 

[Revolvor]

I originally had a lot of negative wires going to my two batteries, but I installed a home-made Negative Bus-Bar for all the negative connections and then just took one wire from the Bus-Bar to the negative connection on the battery, via the Smart Shunt.

See a small portion of my wiring diagram below:

(Ignore the dotted lines - they go to an occasional removable "third battery")

(If I'd planned ahead before I started gradually modifying the 12v system, I would have taken all Positive cables to a Positive Bus-Bar too.)

 

[John H.]

Interesting. My energy meter has the shunt on the positive pole on the battery and then all of the load connections fused from the other side of the shunt.

Either way, the meter connected to the smart shunt needs a low power fuse to protect the electroniics and thin wires connecting it to the battery.

 

[Raul]

I also use a positive fused buss bar and negative. Makes more organised distribution, you can fuse each load and batteries individually, and you can run equal lengths from batteries to bus. My two batteries negatives go to shunt battery side, then from load side to buss bar.

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[PJGWiltshire]

Many thanks. That makes things very clear.

 

[XxAnthxX]

Just be aware of the surprise m10 bolts on the smart shunt as you’ll probably find the eyes on your existing cables are only big enough for m-8 bolts……

 

[PJGWiltshire]

Just be aware of the surprise m10 bolts on the smart shunt as you’ll probably find the eyes on your existing cables are only big enough for mate bolts……

I am going to copy Revolver and instal a couple of Bus bars to make things easier with the various sized ends and tidy up the terminals

 

[Googlebot]

I am going to copy Revolver and instal a couple of Bus bars to make things easier with the various sized ends and tidy up the terminals

There is a thread in my signature where I used a couple of bus bars. It did make everything easy, just takes up a lot of room.

 

[burtonwisher]

I've done the same, with a negative busbar and positive fusebox that everything connects to, then 1 positive cable running to the batteries, and 1 negative cable running to the shunt, which then runs to the batteries, as in this photo, with the covers taken off to see the insides.
The 2 batteries are connected in parallel, and the positive cable goes to the positive on one battery, the negative goes to the negative on the other battery.

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[Revolvor]

I am going to copy Revolver and instal a couple of Bus bars to make things easier with the various sized ends and tidy up the terminals

Bus bar made from flattened 15mm copper tube, and M6 bolts. This one is in a Battery Box, but for general use would need to be insulated.

 

[davida71uk]

Question on the Smart Shunts if I may, as this is an advice thread with experienced users. Are they preferable in accuracy and utility over the habitation panel readings? I'm interested to know if the majority of people install them in self builds, or also in coach built vehicles to have a more accurate view of battery utilisation over the habitation control panel? What's are the benefits of a shunt in a coach built vehicle? Are they worth installing in a vehicle with only lead acid batteries and no inverter? Thanks.

This video would seem fairly unbiased and well explained:

Victron Smart Shunt – Smart Enough?

 

[Raul]

The victron shunt has a resolution of 50ma, so very accurate over any panel. It’s worth having it with any battery type, as you can keep track of power in/out, and what’s left available, without to having guestination based on voltage.

 

[PJGWiltshire]

From understanding its not the volt level you need to keep an eye on its the amp. If your control panel cab gives an accurate AMP level you maybe ok without one. My control panel shows the voltage but not amps available. Obviously I would like to know the amp available and the level of charge from solar.
The shunt gives me that especially when I am doing loads over a time ie good lady uses hairdryer in the morning a quick coffee on the machine and a charge up of the laptop. This will enable me to see how much life is left in the batteries at that stage and where necessary consider if I need to source a top up. If the sun is out there is the top up, If EHU is available I can consider that or take a drive. I have found having the Shunt that enables me to see what is in the batteries gives comfort as we do in the main do not use EHU.

 

[Revolvor]

Question on the Smart Shunts if I may, as this is an advice thread with experienced users. Are they preferable in accuracy and utility over the habitation panel readings? I'm interested to know if the majority of people install them in self builds, or also in coach built vehicles to have a more accurate view of battery utilisation over the habitation control panel? What's are the benefits of a shunt in a coach built vehicle? Are they worth installing in a vehicle with only lead acid batteries and no inverter? Thanks.

This video would seem fairly unbiased and well explained:

Victron Smart Shunt – Smart Enough?

You get all this information with the SmartShunt - far more than the van control panel.

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[davida71uk]

My control panel shows the voltage but not amps available.

Same with ours, it's a 2010 Autotrail and only has volts and we spend a lot of time at festivals with only solar charging, well, if there is any sun out in the first place.

 

[PJGWiltshire]

Same with ours, it's a 2010 Autotrail and only has volts and we spend a lot of time at festivals with only solar charging, well, if there is any sun out in the first place.

Well I would go with a smart shunt, it gives a lot of comfort around what you have available. Consider a B2B charger and you will be all set to live a fair bit off grid, Plus us boys like our tech toys

 

[davida71uk]

Consider a B2B charger.

Indeed, it's on the list along with a Battery Master.

 

[Adrianlle]

The victron shunt has a resolution of 50ma, so very accurate over any panel. It’s worth having it with any battery type, as you can keep track of power in/out, and what’s left available, without to having guestination based on voltage.

May I also ask for some advice on installing a Victron battery monitor?At present I have a lot of sep cables going to the 2x new lithium 100ah plus solar ,mains charger, inverter, temp sensors etc. Room is tight for busbars but I can just about fabricate a mounting for the BVM 712 and a sep neg busbar. My understanding is that all negative loads inc solar and inverter then go to the negative busbar ( ? the temp sensors?) then new cable connects neg busbar to load on BVM and then BVM connected to cable from battery negative ( cross wired). Is that correct?

However I have an existing Westfalia 100A shunt. Load neg is connected to one side and the other side connects to battery negative. It measures and sends its readings to the existing Westfalia multi info display( voltage and batt capacity but now inaccurate because of lithium). For reasons of originality I would like to keep that rather than disabling it by bypassing that shunt. So is there some way I can do that and have both shunts? Thanks

 

[Raul]

Only one shunt at the time will work reliably. The temp sensor can go to the batt terminal, does not affect the shunt, and reads temp where it should.
If the Westfalia can be reset to 1:1 no peukert, it may read quite ok on lithium.

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[Adrianlle]

Thanks Raul

Only one shunt at the time will work reliably. The temp sensor can go to the batt terminal, does not affect the shunt, and reads temp where it should.
If the Westfalia can be reset to 1:1 no peukert, it may read quite ok on lithium.

Thanks Raul. That’s what I’d thought. The Westfalia shunt can’t be set in that way so my inclination is to install a new negative busbar for the random negative cables, then connect that to the load side of the Westfalia busbar for tidynes Then monitor battery soc etc from the app for the BMS on the Sterling lithium. Thanks for the help.

 

[paddymcc]

Thanks Raul

Thanks Raul. That’s what I’d thought. The Westfalia shunt can’t be set in that way so my inclination is to install a new negative busbar for the random negative cables, then connect that to the load side of the Westfalia busbar for tidynes Then monitor battery soc etc from the app for the BMS on the Sterling lithium. Thanks for the help.

I have an EBL 101 with integral shunt on my Hymer. When I went for lithium I did consider going for the Victron shunt but thought I would try just using the BMS information through the app that came with the battery. That's been good enough for my needs. It shows voltage, amps in or out and Ah of battery with a dial for SOC. Sorry not with the van so can't do a screenshot but I have found that it's adequate for my needs. I can see that if you have all Victron stuff that the integration is very good, showing solar charge over time etc. but whether it's really necessary I'm not sure.

 

[Adrianlle]

Thanks for this. So will see how I get on.

 

[Louis P]

great reading through this post. I'm going to fit the Victron smart shunt and wanted an idea of what tails you use to go from battery negative to the smartshunt? I'm just currently using an AGM Ah with no inverter to the Van but have a 100w solar panel.